


Chosen

by straightforwardly



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Extra Treat, Gen, ToT: Monster Mash, vaguely shippy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 12:56:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12531912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/straightforwardly/pseuds/straightforwardly
Summary: When Haley woke up in the middle of the night feeling like a large hand was tapping its claws down her spine, she seriously considered just rolling over and going back to sleep.





	Chosen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sunspot (unavoidedcrisis)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/unavoidedcrisis/gifts).



> sunspot, your "Haley as Buffy" prompt seized my mind and wouldn't let it go. I hope you enjoy this!

Haley knew the truth: Pelican Town was the _worst_. People could talk about the “healthful living” and “close-knit communities” all they wanted, but nothing made up for the awful experience of walking across the street, or down by the river, or through the forest, and suddenly being struck by a strange chill, or feeling a shiver crawl down her spine, or any one of the many strange sensations that Haley had been dealing with her whole life. 

And that wasn’t even touching on the constant, lowkey pressure hovering in the air that only disappeared on the rare occasion when she actually managed to get out of the valley to do her clothes shopping in-person. She hadn’t even realized that it’d been there at all until the first time she’d ever left the valley and realized how much easier it was to breathe. 

It’d taken Haley years to realize that not everyone felt those same sensations as she did. In fact, no one did—not even Emily, for all that she constantly chattered about “chakras” and “negative and positive energy”. And people actually _wondered_ why she bickered with her sister. Ugh. It was enough to drive anyone crazy.

It’d taken her even longer to realize that those sensations had a point to them beyond tormenting her, and longer still for her to accept that, okay, _maybe_ she should do something about it. Sometimes. If it was urgent enough, and not too inconvenient for her. 

So when she woke up in the middle of the night feeling like a large hand was tapping its claws down her spine, Haley seriously considered just rolling over and going back to sleep. Whatever was wrong could go take care of itself, okay? She wasn’t going to walk around the next day with shadows under her eyes just because some weird spirit looked at her when she was a kid and decided that _she_ was the perfect person to be the so-called “chosen one”. Why couldn’t it have chosen Emily? This was exactly the kind of thing Emily would have eaten up with a spoon. Haley just wanted to sleep. 

But as she clutched her teddy bear closer to her chest and closed her eyes again, she couldn’t help but feel uneasy. There really was something annoyingly persistent about that tapping, even more so than usual. And… although she still wasn’t very good at sorting out the exact meaning of all the different sensations she felt, she was pretty sure this one was less _spooky creature hanging about_ and more of a warning about something that was about to happen, but hadn’t yet. Which meant that if she went back to sleep, someone might actually get hurt.

Ugh.

Haley sat up, scowling. Fine. She’d go. Besides, she really didn’t want that creepy old man from the western tower to start creeping up on her and intoning things about “responsibility” and “purpose” again every time she went to take pictures in the woods. 

She dressed quickly, and crept out of the house. Once outside, she leaned back against the front door and closed her eyes, trying to focus on where, exactly, the tapping was trying to guide her to. She breathed in deep of the crisp night air as she focused. 

_Tap. Tap. Tap._ Over and over, up and down: large claws, tapping against every bone in her spine. 

North, she thought. Definitely north. Maybe a bit to the east as well, but she wasn’t quite as sure about that one. It’d get clearer as she got closer. It always did. 

She hadn’t bother grabbing a flashlight. Rummaging around for one would only have risked her waking Emily up, and the moon was bright enough that night that she didn’t need one to guide her way. She struck out across the street, feeling oddly exposed as she made her way through the center of town. 

Pelican Town was never exactly what one would call “bustling”, but even so, Haley couldn’t get used to the contrast it portrayed at night. The homes were filled with the sleeping and it showed. Not a single light glowed from any of the windows. The encroaching cold had silenced most of the crickets; only a determined few still chirped and that only occasionally—nothing like the incessant singing of the summer. Beyond that, all she heard was the pad of her own footsteps against the cobblestone. It was almost a relief when she reached the last of the cobblestones beyond the general store and began making her way up the winding dirt path leading to the mountains. 

She passed the crumbling remains of the old community center, making sure to give it a wide berth—she didn’t know _what_ it was that lived in there, and was equally certain that she didn’t _want_ to know. Whatever had woken her up had nothing to do with that place, and that was good enough for her. 

As the carpenter’s shop came into view, the feeling suddenly clarified. _Tap, tap tap_ , quicker and quicker over her spine, and Haley knew: she had to go to the mines.

She heaved a heavy sigh. Perfect. She hated the mines—coal dust everywhere, and the things that lived there were nasty. Most of the things she had to deal with were more thoughtless than mean, but that wasn’t true of the creatures in the mines. She hated them. Especially the slimes. It’d taken her over an hour to get all of the slime guts out of her hair the last time she’d had to go to the mines, and her dress had been utterly ruined, unsalvageable for anything other than being cut up for cleaning rags. 

By Yoba’s light, she hoped that there wouldn’t be any slimes this time. 

Just as she reached the bridge, a sharp cry burst out from somewhere within the mines. Haley ran forward, across the bridge and through the entrance. 

Inside, lamps glowed from the walls, illuminating the main chamber. Immediately, Haley’s eyes focused on the figure picking herself up from the ground. Her back was to Haley, but the purple hair curling around her shoulders gave her away. Only one person in Pelican Town had hair like that.

Abigail.

Haley found herself utterly unsurprised by this discovery. It figured that the girl whose idea of fun involved sitting in a graveyard all night would also be the one getting herself into supernatural trouble in the mines in the middle of the night. Haley hadn’t overlooked the sword laying on the ground besides her, either. 

Though, speaking of the supernatural… Haley looked around the room, pursing her mouth. The tapping sensation hadn’t stopped, but she didn’t see anything else there other than Abigail herself. 

Abigail’s shoulders shook, and Haley’s eyes snapped back to her. She’d already taken another step towards her when she realized that Abigail was laughing, a low, breathy laugh. 

“Just a bat,” Abigail murmured to herself, shaking her head. She didn’t seem to notice that Haley was there. 

Haley hesitated. She hadn’t really ever dealt with other people while on these...expeditions, and she didn’t particularly want to deal with anyone now. But it didn’t seem like there was any avoiding it. She didn’t know how long Abigail would stay there if uninterrupted, and even if she did leave straight away, it wasn’t like there was anywhere Haley could hide. Sooner or later, Abigail would learn that she was there. 

She thought about it for a moment, then let out a delicate cough. 

Abigail whirled around. “... _Haley_?” She turned pink. “How—how long have you been standing there?”

...Huh. Haley didn’t think that she’d ever seen Abigail embarrassed. It was sort of cute. 

No point in making it worse for her, though. She gave a careless shrug, and lied. “Like, two seconds?” 

Abigail relaxed a little. “So... you didn’t see?”

“See what?” Haley deliberately dropped her gaze down towards Abigail’s feet. “See you standing way too close to a hole in the ground?”

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

Abigail blinked at her. “Are you...worried?” She smiled, bending down to pick up her sword. “It’s fine, you know. I'm being careful. I won’t fall.” 

_Tap tap tap._

As Abigail wrapped her hand around the hilt, a thought seemed to strike her, and the smile shifted to a small frown. She straightened up, sword in hand. “Hey, what are you doing here, anyway?”

_Tap tap tap tap tap._

Just as the last word fell from her mouth, Haley saw two glowing eyes, rising up from the hole.

Her breath caught. “Watch out!” 

She darted forward, grabbing Abigail by the collar of her shirt and tugging her back. Abigail’s eyes went wide and shocked as she stumbled forward. “What—”

Then she seemed to notice where Haley’s eyes were fixed, because she turned her head to look over her shoulder. 

A clunking stone-made creature, vaguely human-like in shape, pulled itself out from the hole. 

Haley suddenly regretted tuning out that old man from the western tower so much, if only because the creature looked startlingly like some of the things she’d half-heard him describe in his stories. Something about some ancient war…? 

How did she beat something made of _stone_?

Worse, when she’d pulled Abigail away, she’d pulled her in the wrong direction. She’d pulled her deeper into the main chamber, away from the entrance, and now the creature stood in-between them and their only route of escape. Somehow she doubted that it’d let them pass it so easily. 

“Whoa,” Abigail breathed, not sounding even half as worried as Haley thought that she ought to have been. 

“Uh, how about not?” Haley said. 

“What? It’s cool!”

“Yeah, no.” She let go of Abigail’s collar. “Do you think that sword of yours could do anything to it?”

 _That_ managed to snap Abigail out of her awe. She looked down at the sword in her hand, hefting its weight. “I could try.”

“Great,” said Haley, not taking her eyes off from the creature. “I suggest trying.”

Abigail shifted her stance and swung her sword, just as the creature made a sudden lunge towards them. She yelped, and Haley yelped with her, but the sword made contact, striking against its open palms. 

Haley heard a crack, and for a moment her heart froze, thinking it was the sword itself. But then Abigail pulled the blade back, and she saw that the silver metal gleamed unblemished; the cracking sound had come from the creature’s stone hands. 

“That’s promising,” she said, and Abigail made a distracted hum of agreement as she parried another one of the creature’s attacks. 

But if Haley had hoped for a quick victory, she was disappointed. While the sword did definite damage to the creature, it wasn’t going to be enough for a quick end to the fight. Haley started looking around the main chamber, searching for something she could use to help. There was the old mine cart—but no, that was probably too heavy for Haley to push by herself, and even if she could, she didn’t know if she’d be able to avoid hitting Abigail with it to. But there wasn’t much else in the room. There was only the old elevator, and…

Her eyes fixed on the lamps on the wall. As far as she knew, no one in Pelican Town actually knew what was inside of them. Whatever it was looked like fire, but burned unceasingly and without any visible source of fuel, ensuring that the mines were never dark. No one ever needed to light them. No one ever needed to maintain them. They were just _there_ , always shining their light.

Well, it didn’t hurt to try. Haley ran to the nearest one, wrapping her fingers around the glass. She tugged hard, expecting it to be rusted into place, but it gave with a surprising ease. Haley stumbled back with lamp in hand, nearly tripping over the uneven ground. She turned, her heart pounding wildly.

Abigail was still holding the creature back, but she was clearly starting to tire. Haley swallowed and began to creep around the creature, praying fervently that it wouldn’t notice her. 

She looked up, and her eyes met Abigail’s in a brief moment of distraction. Without thinking Haley lifted up the lamp, briefly pantomiming her smashing it over something. Abigail gave the briefest of nods, and threw herself even more fiercely in the fight, forcing the creature’s attention fully on her. 

It sufficed. Haley crept up behind the creature, and smashed the lamp down over its head.

It definitely wasn’t fire. The creature _melted_ , the light dancing over its stone skin. It made no sound as it died, and Haley somehow found that more disturbing than if it had wailed. That was just—wrong.

The tapping finally stopped.

Haley let out a rush of breath, staring at the dark patch of ground where the creature had last stood. From besides her, she heard Abigail do the same.

A few heartbeats of silence passed.

“Wow,” Abigail finally said. “That was...wow. I didn’t know you had it in you.”

Haley glanced over and saw that Abigail was giving her an admiring look. She felt her face warm, though she wasn’t sure why. 

“I wish I didn’t either,” she said. She’d meant for it to sound flippant, but it didn’t quite come out that way.

Abigail didn’t seem deterred. She gave Haley a considering look, then said, “Still. It was pretty cool. _You_ were pretty cool.”

“...You were too,” said Haley, and to her surprise found that she meant it. She’d always thought that the way Abigail swung her sword around in the graveyard silly, especially since it was clear that she couldn’t even see the ghosts that were her audience. She didn’t know anything about the creatures which dwelled in the valley, Haley had always thought. Not really. What did she think she was able to do?

But now…

She’d known, vaguely, that there were much more dangerous creatures than she’d yet seen living deep within the mines. If nothing else, the pressure of her extra senses told her so. But until now, she’d only ever seen the ones that everyone knew about: the bugs and slimes that lived in the upper levels. She’d never faced anything as dangerous as that stone creature before. 

Without Abigail, that fight would have been harder. A lot harder. 

They… kind of made a good team.

“That’s probably enough excitement for one night, though,” Abigail said ruefully. “What do you say to heading back? 

Haley decided. She slipped over to Abigail, who startled as Haley slid her arm into hers. 

“Let’s,” Haley said, looking up at her with a rather self-satisfied smile. “And while we walk, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about…”


End file.
